3 Challenges to know before deciding to homeschool your kids

As a homeschool mom for the past six years, I have a long list of things I love about educating my kids this way.

I love that I can customize the curriculum to each individual child, so one kid is way ahead in literature and history, while another is working a grade ahead in math. 

I love that I don’t have to rush everyone out the door in the morning but can enjoy slower, peaceful mornings reading books, listening to music, playing imaginative games, and having family time.

I love that my kids spend tons of time outside, in all weather, getting to know the local plants and animals far better than I do and learning to love this incredible world God created.

I love that we can travel easily, whenever we want, packing up the school books to hit the road in off-season times like mid-September or the end of January.

I love that I get to be there for all the ups and downs of their daily lives, teaching them to navigate social interactions with courtesy and push through hard times with fortitude.

I love that I know exactly what they’re learning and can present information through the lens of the truth, beauty and goodness that we constantly seek as a Catholic family.

There is so much to love about homeschooling, but it’s not easy. I was a little surprised, as someone who was not homeschooled myself, to discover that some parts of educating this way are a lot harder than I expected. 

If you’re interested in homeschooling your children and want to know the ins and outs of the decision, here are three unexpected challenges of homeschooling.

Hands down the hardest part of homeschooling for me is the high level of personal discipline it calls for. I need to be very organized with our schedule, books and materials if I’m going to have any success with daily lessons.

Part of this discipline includes being firm and authoritative in parenting. I ascribe to the authoritative parenting style, in which children are treated with respect and warm affection while the parent also sets firm boundaries with consistent consequences. Because I am my children’s teacher, I have a lot of opportunities during the day for them to push back against boundaries and that can lead to friction between us.

I’ve found that the best remedy for this friction and pushback is to hold the boundary firmly while acknowledging and sympathizing with how the child feels, but it takes a lot out of me. In short, if you like being a “fun parent” and don’t love having to be a firm disciplinarian (I tend toward this category myself), this aspect of homeschooling is going to be tough for you. At the same time, I think it’s made me a better parent and helped me grow as a person, so there are definitely positive things about the high need for discipline too.

This part of homeschooling really surprised me and took some getting used to! Because my children are literally always at home, I’m very rarely able to get our whole house clean at the same time. If I’m cleaning in one room, they are playing and making creative messes in another! Add on to that the art projects, science experiments, and activities to entertain the preschoolers and toddlers during lessons, and you can see how challenging it is to get the whole house cleaned up if you homeschool.

Of course, my children help with many of the chores, and we have regular daily cleaning times in our schedule. They are very good about cleaning up after themselves, for young children. But it’s the natural way of children to make a mess as they play, so more often than not, we have some kind of creative chaos going on in the house. 

My husband has learned to be extra patient when I text him, “Just to warn you, the children have been playing VERY creatively all over the house today!”

Again, because I’m always with my children, with rare breaks, I find that it can be easy for me to approach burn-out. My kids are very energetic and it’s a lot to keep up with them. 

Self-care is one of the things I see talked about the least in the homeschool world, but to me, it’s one of the most important things to include in my homeschool plans. Otherwise, this lifestyle of serving as both mom and teacher can become overwhelming.

Self-care as a homeschool mom has looked different for me in different seasons, but right now, I am finding it really helpful to wake up before my kids and get in some prayer, exercise, and quiet alone time. This past school year, I enrolled my children in a hybrid school one morning a week to give myself a little break. The year before that, one of my most energetic children attended preschool two mornings a week. The year before that, I joined a gym with childcare where I could drop off my kids while I got in some exercise and a shower. 

You get the idea. As homeschool parents, we need to give some extra thought and planning to how we are going to get breaks to recharge and take care of ourselves. Our spouses also play a huge role here: My husband takes on a big share of the mental load in our home in order to free up my time for homeschooling. The role of the other parent in ensuring that the homeschooling parent gets enough time to themselves is a really crucial part of deciding whether to homeschool. 

As a homeschool mom, I’ve found these three things to be the most challenging part of homeschooling. I’d love to hear your thoughts: If you homeschool, do you agree with this list? What would you add?